Éste es mi blog.

It's been a while. I now have a little daugther, super sweet. It's been great so far, of course I miss sleeping 8 hours in a row but it's definitely worth it. I guess most people's first question recently is what's it feel to be a father. My default answer is great, just because you don't want to get into it all. But in reality I do feel quite different, and it's not as easy to put into words. It is pretty awesome and I would think most new fathers have their worldview changed. Might also be the hormones of course!

So during the year I actually took a break from PLO after a nasty downswing and started playing SnGs and some MTTs. I mostly played 180 mans, apparently I played around 10k of them with an ROI in the low 20s%, so it was a nice adventure and pretty good bankroll booster. I especially enjoyed, I realize now, the 5 minute breaks every hour. I had played STTs early in my poker years, but not 180s. I think they're pretty fun. It's certainly worse to bubble a 180, but much better to win one.

Anyway, I'm back to cash PLO now. I played 91k hands during December and looking forward to getting my grind on this next year. I think my time playing SnGs has helped me play lots of tables much more easily for longer times. I'm also quite motivated now. Not just because of the little one, but I'm excited about working on my game (I know there's a ton I still have to work on). I've been watching DJ Sensei's recent PLO vids, I haven't commented on them but they are pretty good overall. I think what I've most taken from it is working on my turn and river game. I've also been watching videos on other sites, and I've been marking and reviewing hands pretty much every sesison.

All this motivation (and good results) certainly has been helping my psychological game, so all in all I'm really looking forward to working hard next year. Gonna put in a lot of hands and keep learning. I'm definitely going to play some MTTs from time to time, still hungry for that big score. I'll also be returning to the forums with more posts.

Wish you all a great year!

Oh, and in case you missed it, Jared Tendler interviewed Phil Galfond.

Hey all,

Sorry I'm bad at coming up with blog post titles. I've been running somewhat bad at PLO, I thought people would be nitting it up at Zoom, but there's actually a lot of aggressive 3betting going on at 100plo. It's fine though, I've been getting a lot of my money in with Aces preflop, only need to start winning them flips. As I had posted about, I've also been playing more MTTs. I actually scored 4th in Poker Stars' Saturday Eliminator today which definitely made up for all the run bad. All in all it was a good month, managed to build my roll back up and I'm looking forward playing a lot of events during SCOOP in May.

Anyway, the best thing by far this week was when my wife and I got to see and hear our baby for the first time. It was an amazing experience, seeing him/her move all excitedly after we laughed over something I said. Everything's going good so far so we're pretty happy. Still a month or so from knowing if it's a boy or girl, but I'll keep you updated. Here's my new favorite video.

orestto

What's up, DC!

Pretty happy to let you guys know my wife has been pregnant for around 7 weeks now and our baby is due November! The baby is currently the size of a blueberry and we're excited to go get an ultrasound in a week or so and see if we can see him/her. I'll be sure to write up a trip report. For now, I'll leave you with a very cool BBC documentary I found over at Papaverse.com (great site, JT!):

Regarding poker, I actually had a nasty PLO downswing which, coupled with the wedding and honeymoon last year, left me with the need to rebuild my roll. I used to play STTs a long time ago, so I decided to watch OMGClayDol's last two series on 180 mans and jumped into the games at Poker Stars. Fortunately, I've been running pretty hot and am running at 48% ROI after my first 1k games. I know the sample size is small, but it's a good start. Pretty sure I'll soon be riding the PLO swongs again, just how I like it!

Anyway, thanks for reading and see you in the forums!

orestto

Looks like we won, Internet person.

Thanks to everyone who helped get the information out there. I'm surprised it feels this satisfying to participate in a battle for freedom.

Here's a couple of links on the Internet's victory. 

RT Article (by the way, RT is a solid news site)

CNN Money Article

Would like to invite more people to get involved and keep a watchful eye on what the lawmakers are coming up with today. My personal next goal is to end the war on drugs. It's going to take a while, but the devastation it brings to Mexico is horrendous. It is truly brutal. I firmly believe there's nothing more important for bringing back peace and liberty to the people in this country than getting rid of the Prohibition. It is the only thing that gives druglords the amount of power they have, and has touched pretty much everyone I know in some form or other.

I will put a lot of my time into this battle, and if you're from the US and would like to join me please visit the Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (www.leap.cc) and The Marijuana Policy Project (www.mpp.org). If you'd like to see a recent and informative film about the war on drugs, here's one I watched a few days ago. It's mostly an American/Canadian perspective, as in they don't show the brutality of the war in Mexico. I urge you to keep that in mind.

Peace! 

TCOOP PLO tournies start tomorrow. One time!

Hey DC folk!

Long time since I posted, been getting busier as the wedding date approaches. Time does start flying by when you're a few months away, now it's next week! Very much looking forward to it though, party should be hella fun. After the wedding we'll be going on a honeymoon trip and I'll probably take a couple of weeks off after returning to chill and get the house in order. So I will probably not be around from now until early December. After that, it's ON again! Will be posting more frequently and grinding up the stakes, should be easier without a wedding coming up. Not much else to update on, most of my free time has been spent reading up on Jared Tendler's The Mental Game of Poker (great book!) and learning economics over at the Ludwig von Mises Institute (mises.org). Can't stay much longer, so thanks to everyone for their support and I'll be sure to post some wedding pics when I get back. GLGL!

orestto

Hey all, just doing a quick update. July went good, finished playing the 50k hands at 8pm on July 31st so I didn't have to pay up on a volume prop bet. I don't think it's that many hands anyway but I was also doing coaching and making the MonoPLOly vids.
Up to the 35k hand or so I was running at 12bb/100, but I lost about 20 buy-ins in the last 15k hands. 3 were lost in this hand below, around 7 or so due to coolers like flopped straight flush vs nut flush, top boat vs quads, and I probably could've saved myself 5 or so buy-ins if I had been playing my A-game, which is the most frustrating part of all.

Poker Stars $0.50/$1 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 5 players - View hand 1387793
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

CO: $191.15
BTN: $89.95
SB: $377.65
BB: $39.25
Hero (UTG): $304.10

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is UTG with T A A 3
Hero raises to $3.50, 2 folds, SB raises to $11.50, 1 fold, Hero raises to $19.50, SB raises to $27.50, Hero raises to $35.50, SB raises to $43.50, Hero raises to $131.50, SB calls $88

Flop: ($264.00) 7 8 5(2 players)
SB bets $246.15 all in, Hero calls $172.60 all in

Turn: ($609.20) 6(2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($609.20) 9(2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $609.20
SB shows T K J 7 (a straight, Seven to Jack)
Hero shows T A A 3 (a pair of Aces)
SB wins $607.20
(Rake: $2.00)

Anyway finished the month with like 3.5bb/100 and somewhat or a burnout from PLO. Started playing Triple Draw this month again, have been enjoying it so far so I'll probably do that more and have a session with Mr. Schweig. I actually did just play a short session at PLO but it seems like I've ofended one of the poker gods. 

Hand #1
Poker Stars $0.50/$1 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 6 players - View hand 1398252
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: $100.00
Hero (BB): $116.05
UTG: $56.05
MP: $38.30
CO: $67.50
BTN: $285.20

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BB with A A 9 7
4 folds, SB raises to $3, Hero raises to $9, SB raises to $27, Hero raises to $81, SB raises to $100 all in, Hero calls $19

Flop: ($200.00) 6 4 4(2 players - 1 is all in)

Turn: ($200.00) K(2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($200.00) 5(2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $200.00
SB shows 7 8 A A (a straight, Four to Eight)
Hero shows A A 9 7 (two pair, Aces and Fours)
SB wins $197.00
(Rake: $3.00)

Hand #2
Poker Stars $0.50/$1 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 4 players - View hand 1398253
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

CO: $133.85
BTN: $100.00
Hero (SB): $100.50
BB: $28.35

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is SB with J K K T
CO raises to $3, BTN calls $3, Hero calls $2.50, BB calls $2

Flop: ($12.00) 6 K 9(4 players)
Hero checks, BB checks, CO checks, BTN bets $9.10, Hero raises to $38.70, BB folds, CO folds, BTN raises to $97 all in, Hero calls $58.30

Turn: ($206.00) 3(2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($206.00) T(2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $206.00
BTN shows A 5 7 Q (a flush, Ace high)
Hero shows J K K T (three of a kind, Kings)
BTN wins $204.00
(Rake: $2.00)

Hand #3
Poker Stars $0.50/$1 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 6 players - View hand 1398249
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

SB: $106.55
BB: $95.50
UTG: $102.20
MP: $99.00
CO: $100.00
Hero (BTN): $118.10

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BTN with A A 8 K
UTG raises to $3.50, MP calls $3.50, CO calls $3.50, Hero raises to $19, 1 fold, BB raises to $68, 3 folds, Hero raises to $118.10 all in, BB calls $27.50 all in

Flop: ($202.00) Q Q J(2 players - 2 are all in)

Turn: ($202.00) 4(2 players - 2 are all in)

River: ($202.00) 2(2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $202.00
BB shows K A J J (a full house, Jacks full of Queens)
Hero shows A A 8 K (two pair, Aces and Queens)
BB wins $199.00
(Rake: $3.00)

Hand #4
Poker Stars $0.50/$1 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 5 players - View hand 1398269
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

CO: $112.80
Hero (BTN): $104.00
SB: $100.00
BB: $60.00
UTG: $48.10

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is BTN with 7 5 A Q
UTG calls $1, 1 fold, Hero calls $1, 1 fold, BB checks

Flop: ($3.50) 6 T J(3 players)
BB checks, UTG bets $2.50, Hero calls $2.50, BB raises to $13.35, UTG calls $10.85, Hero calls $10.85

Turn: ($43.55) K(3 players)
BB bets $41.55, UTG folds, Hero raises to $89.65 all in, BB calls $4.10 all in

River: ($134.85) J(2 players - 2 are all in)

Final Pot: $134.85
Hero shows 7 5 A Q (a straight, Ten to Ace)
BB shows T 2 J 3 (a full house, Jacks full of Tens)
BB wins $132.85
(Rake: $2.00)

Hand #5
Poker Stars $0.50/$1 Pot Limit Omaha Hi - 5 players - View hand 1398270
DeucesCracked Poker Videos Hand History Converter

BTN: $28.90
SB: $102.00
BB: $60.00
UTG: $25.30
Hero (CO): $100.00

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is CO with Q J 5 9
1 fold, Hero raises to $3.50, BTN calls $3.50, 1 fold, BB calls $2.50

Flop: ($11.00) T K 3(3 players)
BB checks, Hero bets $8, BTN folds, BB calls $8

Turn: ($27.00) 9(2 players)
BB bets $25.70, Hero raises to $79.65, BB calls $22.80 all in

River: ($124.00) 5(2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $124.00
BB shows 4 4 J Q (a flush, King high)
Hero shows Q J 5 9 (a straight, Nine to King)
BB wins $122.00
(Rake: $2.00)

Oh well, still lots of room to make August my best month ever!

GLGL!

orestto

Hey all,

My new PLO series is out, it's called MonoPLOly and you can see the first episode here. It's going to be a series analyzing board texture in PLO. The format will be theory and then we'll jump into actual hand histories I've played somewhat recently. The first episode was on dry boards, so we focused on boards like AK7r, T42r and Q73r. If you do watch the video, be sure to read the video thread as well as I correct some minor mistakes. Any feedback is appreciated.

By the way, in the end I decided to use hands from my own database as it's easier to find hands, talk about my opponent's tendencies and my how they perceive me. That said, DC member rubbishaka80 sent in a bunch of hands so I've decided to give him the free coaching session I mentioned in an earlier blog post and might go over a few of them in later episodes. 

Anyway, I'm probably going to work on the second episode soon. I actually just installed Holdem Manager 2 Beta and I think the filters are going to help me out a ton. You can filter the flop in basically every way possible, including customizing each of the three flop card ranks. I haven't really looked into the HUD and other in-game stuff, but here's what the Reports-Graph thingie looks like now. This is for July, mostly 6max 100plo with a bit of HU sprinkled in there.

Big thanks to Rusty for coming up with a kickass name for the series and solving some tech stuff, as well as bachfan for creating Pro Poker Tools (PLO player's best friend) and helping me out with some syntax issues.

GL!

orestto

I realized I haven't posted a single picture of actual tacos, so here's basically what happens when I'm hungry at night. I grab my teléfono, call this guy. He comes over 10 minutes later. I exchange him a pink piece of plastic (55 pesos, equivalent to 5 usd) for some delicious tacos. In this case, campechanas. Combined meat of trompo and bistek. Yes, that is an excessive amount of salsa and onion.

Anyway, been pretty busy lately. I'm doing a prop bet with another poker player to play 50k hands this month and apparently I'm behind pace, although not by much. I would definitely dislike paying the man so I guess there's not much else to do but grind. Fortunately, it's been going really well and I'm running at double-digit bb/100 which is always nice in PLO. That said, I'm really trying not to focus on results as of late. Not just because it makes it more likely that you'll end up feeling miserable after a losing session or tilting off even more money after a loss, but because worrying simply drains you of energy that would be better used in paying even closer attention to what's going on. If instead of checking HEM results in the middle of a session you write up a note on someone's play that's probably a much better way to spend that energy. I guess this becomes even more important when you're grinding a lot with regulars and playing more tables.

As a result of all this busy-ness, I will only be taking in a couple of more students until my current ones end their sessions. This way I'll also be able to spend time on improving my game, which will result in benefits for my active students as well. I was planning on writing something about improving, but you might as well just read this thread, especially shuttle's and improva's bitchslaps of truth.

Also, I'll be using twitter more often (finally!) now so you can follow me here: http://www.twitter.com/orestto. My latest tweet was about this hand I played today where I won a 380bb pot with King high. You know the drill, 3b pot, xraise with wrap + fd get it in vs bare wrap, blank, blank. 

Non-poker wise, haven't been doing much. Spent some time playing Portal 2 this weekend, and I have to say Valve did a great job. I didn't try the solo version, but the co-op is fantastic. Requires a lot of thinking and good communication, definitely something you want to play with a friend imo. Really good visuals as well if you're into that.

Ok, here's the hand from my twitter post. 

UTG: $193.20

MP: $98.50
CO: $81.30
BTN: $305.10
Hero (SB): $213.20
BB: $38.75

Pre Flop: ($1.50) Hero is SB with 9 J Q K
UTG raises to $3, 3 folds, Hero raises to $10, 1 fold, UTG calls $7

Flop: ($21.00) T 3 8(2 players)
Hero checks, UTG bets $19.95, Hero raises to $79.80, UTG raises to $183.20 all in, Hero calls $103.40

Turn: ($387.40) 3(2 players - 1 is all in)

River: ($387.40) T(2 players - 1 is all in)

Final Pot: $387.40
UTG shows Q J 9 6 (a pair of Tens - lower kicker)
Hero shows 9 J Q K (a pair of Tens)
Hero wins $384.40
(Rake: $3.00)

Games are good! Peace!

orestto

Played a lot today. Almost gave up near the end. Glad I didn't!

Started listening to Ratatat at hand 4k. Here's two of their new songs, so so good.

I think there are some well-deserved tacos with my name on them, nomnomnom!

Hey!

I'm planning on making some new PLO videos soon so I would like for people to send me hand histories to analyze. I'm going to accept all kinds of hands and then classify them accordingly, so most hands work. Any stakes, any number of opponents, any stack depth. 

The only rules are:

1. Hand should be interesting or tough spots.

2. Hand must at least go to the flop with money behind. It's better if it goes to the turn and river with money behind.

If interested, please PM me with links to converted hands in the DC HH Converter as well as the raw hand history for that hand.

I'll be accepting hands until July 1st. Whoever sends in the most hands I end up using will receive a free PLO coaching session!